Let me just start off this post by confessing something: I actually Googled whether crawdads can sing. I also Googled what a crawdad is but that’s beside the point. All this to say “Where The Crawdad’s Sing” is a book that had me looking up all the wonderful and weird things you can find in the marsh. It also had me feeling all kinds of emotions and rooting for the main character. It is a story about prejudice, loss, loneliness and self-resilience.

(Picture from @khanlibrary)

Synopsis:

The locals call Kya Clark “Marsh girl”. At a young age, Kya watched as her family walked out on her, leaving her to survive on her own in the marsh. While the marsh is her home and all the creatures become her friends, Kya yearns for human connection. Everything changes when two young men from town fall for her and she opens her heart to the possibility of love and all the pain that comes with it. When one of the men is found dead in the marsh, all eyes and suspicion turn to the mysterious Marsh girl.

All The Feelings:

“She knew the years of isolation had altered her behavior until she was different from others, but it wasn’t her fault she’d been alone. Most of what she knew, she’d learned from the wild. Nature had nurtured, tutored, and protected her when no one else would.” 
― Delia Owens

 It takes a truly gifted author to make you feel the emotions that the character is feeling. Kya’s loneliness leapt off the pages. The author describes both the beauty and the isolation of the marsh, with Kya right in the center of it. You are taken through Kya’s childhood when she watches her mother walk away, followed by her siblings and finally her abusive father. You follow her as she quietly watches throngs of friends on the beach from behind the bushes, wondering what it would feel like to be part of a group like that. You read along her internal dialogue as she hopes her mother will come back to her. It is heartbreaking. So when a boy by the name of Tate rows his way into the marsh, your heart leaps with joy that Kya might finally get the connection she wants so badly. It is both beautiful and sad reading about Kya’s first experience with love.

Unique Reading Experience:

This book is very poetic. The way the author uses metaphors to describe the environment makes you feel like you’re in the marsh seeing the dragonflies and feeling the wet earth under your feet. There is so much interesting information woven into the story about the life on the marsh from the creatures to the land itself. I learned a lot about the feathers of different birds, the mating patterns of several animals and all the channels of the lagoon.

All this comes from Kya’s perspective as she navigates the land from her early years well into her twenties. It is such a fun way to learn as you see the character discovering and learning things for herself. The book also includes beautiful poetry that Kya collects. All I will say is pay close attention to these poems as they play an important role in the end. I was quite surprised and it just tied everything together in a way I did not expect. The murder mystery was just the cherry on top of this beautiful sundae of a book. I love a good mystery, and the author managed to develop Kya’s character so wonderfully while keeping the suspense of the ongoing murder investigation alive. I was completely surprised by the turn the book took, and I loved it. It was one of those books where I finished it and felt complete peace over how it was all wrapped up.

Overall Thoughts:

Very rarely do you come across a book that has poetry, a murder mystery, a love story and lots of science. I read this book in two days and immediately wanted to read another book by this author. What really stood out for me was Kya’s loneliness and self-resilience. It is truly a story worth reading and one you will not soon forget. I read some rumours about a possible movie deal happening with this book? I can’t confirm this but if it is true all I can say is I’ll be there on opening night ready to share my googled knowledge about crawdads with whoever comes along with me (I feel for that person already).

Happy reading bookworms,

Shazia.